Yr 12 Group 5 Double Dealing

7.) Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression rom it to full product?

With our prelim task, one of the task we were asked to do was match-on -action. Which my group done when the character opened the door.

Then with our opening sequence we also used match-on-action, when the main character is walking to the main door.

On my prelim task we didn't pay much attention to text and how it related to what type of genre we were using, and we just done it simple and didn't do anything technical.

Whereas with our opening sequence we had more time to play around with the different software we could us to create our text. In the end we used livetype and put it over a clip, we also made our text fade in and out which kept to the genre of film we were creating an opening sequence to.

6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Imovie is the main software that we had to use to create this product and we used it to edit our opening sequence. I had experience of using in my own time out side of school and when we made our preliminary task. We imported the clip that we filmed from the camera, and then organised it in order so we knew how our opening sequence would look like. The we cropped the clips so that the timing was right and it didn't look jumpy, but some times this didn't work to how we wanted because the clips we filmed jumped so it was hard to make them flow, therefore we decide to use transitions to make it look smoother.

We also used LiveType, this software was a bit harder to use than imovie and we also used it for the editing process. At first i was only able to make clips with text that when imported to imovie wasn't able to fade over the clip from where it had a black background. Then i tied to find out how to put a writing over clips and i finally found out that you had to export the one clip you wanted the text to be over then make it as a background on LiveType. This ended up working so we decided to put most of our titles and credits over clips that we wanted.

Itunes was the software we used to upload our music on to so we were able to put them onto our opening sequence, and from where itunes is connect to imovie once our music was on itunes it was easy to get it up on imovie.

We used a camera to capture the clips that we needed, and we could also look back at then to see if there was any other clips that we needed to film.

This is the wire we used to upload the clips we recorded to imovie. The wire plugged into the camera and to the computer.

 We also used a tri-pod to hold the camera steady. It also help move the camera left to right steady, where as free hand it would be quit wobbly.

The mac was another main part to help us edit our opening sequence, the reason for this is because all the software is on the computer.

This is a screen grab of blogger. I used the blogger website to publish my work and communicate with my group. I also recored all my research and information from the questionnaire's i asked to find the target audience for thriller genre.

We also used youtube to upload our final product and blog updates, which we posted to blogger as well to show a verity of way to put my work on my blog.

5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Bob, he is male, 18 years old, and enjoys watching thriller films.
He like to shop in JD and loves his trainers, he is usually casually dressed but dresses to impress when he goes to parties.
All types of music is enjoyed by Bob, but his favourite genre of music is dub-step.
When he see a film that interests him he would usually go to the cinema to go watch it, because he enjoys watching good films on big screens. He also is more likely to see a thriller film in the cinema from where it creates a more scary atmosphere and when one person reacts it make everyone react, and that makes him more scared. When he does see a thriller film he likes to bring a girl so that when she is scared she can cuddle up to him.
Bob usually watch's thing like game shows and documentaries about teenage's, from where he can relate to what is going on.

3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What does a production company do?
A production company usually take care of concept and completion of the film and the supervising of the whole thing. They also are responsible for the financial side of the creating the film and selling it to make money. They don't only help create films but the can help t.v programmes and performing arts. They also take care of all the advertising so that people are aware of the type of media they are trying to promote.


What is your idea of a distributor and who that might be and why?
My idea of a distributor is a shops and cinema's companies, this is because they are the ones that help sell films. Also thing like youtube is a type of distributor, from where it lets people world wide see trailer or opening clips to the film.

Where the money might have come from for a film such as yours?
If we did wanted to create our opening sequence as a film we could pitch it to a production company. Then if they believe it has potential to make money they would invest in your film, and give money to create the film, advertisement and help with distribution. Then with the profits you make they would take a cut of it so that they don't lose out on money, which they in vested in. For example big companies like Warner Bros. Pictures, which produced the film Gothika, would need to know if the film has a big money potential before the invest from where they cant afford to have there company name put by an unsuccessful film.

Why the various people are named in the titles- Which jobs appear in the titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
There is various people named in the titles, so that people that have help working on the film can be referenced on it. Usually the actors are named first in the titles because they are the most important people in the film because without there wouldn't be a film, and the last person in the titles is usually the director.

How is your film similar 'institutionally' to others? (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
Our film is similar institutionally to low budget films that don't have the money to advertise the film in large way and rely on the film being cheep and the film looking interesting for people to buy the film to see what it is like. Going back to the research of 5 opening sequences Butterfly effect and Seven are both produced by New Line Cinema, this shows that this production company likes taking on thriller movies. From knowing that new line cinema produces thriller film if we done a good enough pitch they would most properly invest in our film.

2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is the main character in my groups opening sequence and his name is Fredrick. He is casually dressed, laid back and is a generally nice person who is easy to talk to. He cares about other people rather than himself and would put his life on the line for something he believed greatly in. He would also be classed as a middle class person from where he lives a normal life and is just able to pay his bills. Amongst his friends he has a high social status from where they look up to him and aspire to be kind like he is.

Here is a screen grab of the main character from Memento and compared to our main character his is more or less the complete opposite. I know he is the complete opposite from where in the opening sequence you see him kill a person, therefore out straight away no that he is not a nice character. He also seem to have high social status amongst people from where we find out he was a investigator. He is dressed more smartly to suit the type of work he does, which also is different compared to our main character.

This is a screen grab of the main character from the film Gothika and she is more like our main character but she is different gender. She has a higher social status amongst her pears as well from where she works in a mental institution and people usually think that mental people have low social status from where they find it hard to communicate to people. She also dresses casually, because the type of work she does she need people to feel comfortable around her. Altogether our character and Gothika's main character are very similar in a way that they both try and fight for someone's justice.

1.) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1.) Title of film over clip

This is a screen grab from the film Memento, this shows the convention of the title of the film over a clip in the opening sequence. The shot used is also an extreme close up of his hand holding the photo.

We then incorporate this convention into our own work and make sure we had the title of the film over an extreme close-up shot.








2.) Close-up of face

The screen grab we took of Butterfly effect is of a close-up of the main characters face, showing he is stressed and frightened. It is also the first character you see in the opening sequence giving the audience an idea who the main character is.

Yet again we used this in our work to make sure we made our opening sequence seem like a real film opening. The close-up of our main character is also the first character that you see. This creates tension knowing that the main character is in distress and is in a difficult situation.






3.) Blood

This is a screen grab from the film Memento, showing the convention of blood and how it is key in thriller films. It not only shows death but it can show the blood from where someone has been beaten up.

This is our interpretation of blood in our film opening sequence. We used a bit of blood underneath his nose to link up the flash back of him being punched around the face, therefore his nose started to bleed because of the punch.







4.) Shows a death

This screen grab of the film Seven, which shows a person dead on the floor, yet it only just a clip of it. The clip gives the audience brief information that someone has been killed, resulting in an investigation with police.

We then used the convention of death in our opening sequence, we also made sure it was just a clip to make sure the audience could assume that someone has died. We also done it has a flash back to show that the death happened before the main character got tied up.






5.) Weapon

In Memento one of the characters also has a weapon. Then weapon he has was a gun and he uses it on the character that is the person that dies, and from where it is in reverse we no that that man is dead before he gets killed. Altogether it shows that in thrillers some sort of weapon is used.

In our opening sequence we had one of the characters have a baseball bat, which is classed as a weapon, and then uses it on the other character.








6.) Unknown Location

In this screen of Gothika show two women talking, but you are unable to see the background so the audience are uninformed about where about's the characters are.

We incorporated this into our opening sequence and put on of our main characters, who is then joined by another character, in a room with just dim lightening on his face so that the audience do not no where about's the scene is set.







7.) Dark lighting

This is a  screen gab from the film Gothika, which shows dark lighting. The dark lighting creates an eery atmosphere also adding tension making the audience wonder what will happen.

We then used this in our opening sequence and used a dim spot light on our main character, this makes the audience uneasy and also wondering what will happen.










8.) White or baby blue colour text

In Butterfly Effect they also used white text, this shows that we have stuck to the conventions of thriller films because a real thriller product used it.

We used white text through out our opening sequence, and shown in the screen grab of our opening sequence is some of the white we used.









9.) Creepy Music
In the opening sequence of Silence Of The Lambs creepy music is played, creating tension and adds to the atmosphere of what the film will be like. We then also used creepy music, which we made ourselves, in our opening sequence making sure that we stuck to the convention of having creepy music.

Group 5 Update: How well we stuck to the Conventions 15.02.11

10 Conventions Of A Thriller

1. Battle of justice vs injustice
2. Price to be paid for the conclusion of the story
3. Growing sense of threat of danger
4. Normally two main characters
5. Characters appear smartly dressed
6. Essential in building up suspense
7. Urban setting
8. Dim lighting
9. Normally point of view and close up shots
10. Fast pace editing

With the 10 conventions of a thriller that me an my group agreed on, we will now go thought it and see if we have stuck to the conventions.
The first convention is battle between justice and injustice and that is clearly seen in the first part of our opening sequence when Fredrick is tied to the chair and Damon comes out from the darkness. Then there was the price to be paid for the conclusion of the story, this is not clearly shown in the opening sequence but from Damon's voice over it shows that he is jealous that Jane always talks to Fredrick when he is about. The third convention was a growing threat of danger, and that is show at the beginning and towards the ending when Damon walks away really angry. Then there are normally two main characters, and this is kind of shown when the beginning of the open sequence when the story is based on Fredrick and then towards the end the story is based on Damon. The fifth is one character appears smartly dressed, but this is the convention that we challenged but it isn't very clear if people didn't no that one character is usually smartly dressed. Then and essential build up in suspense, which we did towards then end when Damon seems like he is turning evil when he walks off and angry music starts playing and it make the audience wonder what he is going to do next. Then it should be set in an urban setting and in the first part you cant see the surrounding so the audience are unable to tell, but then in the cafe it doesn't really look urban. The eighth convention is dim lighting which we use at the beginning when Fredrick is tied in the chair. Then the camera shots used are normally point of view and close ups, which we also use at the beginning when fredrick is tied up in the chair. finally its fast pace editing, which we use towards the end when Fredrick is walking into the cafe.
All together we did stick to the conventions, but conventions seven is hard for the audience to tell and convention five is the one we challenged. Therefore apart from two conventions we did successfully sick to them.

Group 5 Update: From Feedback 15.02.11 (screen grab)

After listening through our feedback about our opening sequence we decided to put in a voice over to let the audience no why the character Damon is walking off. The reason for this is because some of our classmates were confused to why he walked off and a voice over was a good way of letting the audience no without filming another clip. Then because the person who played Damon left our group we had to use Daniel but he used a deeper voice so that it didn't sound the same as the character Fredrick that he plays. Then because we slowed the clip down to orginal speed we were able to have a longer voice over, therefore making our opening sequence exactly 2 minutes.

Group 5 Update: Feedback from questions about opening sequence 14.02.11

Questions to ask class about opening sequence

1) Do you like it?
2) What genre do you think it is?
3) How does it make you feel?
4) What works well?
5) Does the titles work well?
6) Does the music work well?
7) What type of character is Daniel playing? (e.g evil, good)
8) What could we do to improve?

Self-Assessment Worksheet: Year 12 Film Opening Sequence Production

Self Assessment Worksheet Feb 2011

Group 5 Blog Update: 08.02.11 (screen grab)

Here is  screen grab of our opening sequence. This lesson we added some music and SFX to create atmosphere and tension, we done this by adding in a backing track's and water drops. After we finish adding in music and SFX we decided to trim down some clips to make sure we had either 2 minutes or a bit less. Then we started polishing up the opening sequence to make sure everything flowed and it didn't jump. We also slowed down the title in the some of the clips so that the titles stay up longer so people are able to read them, and we also changed what on of the titles said which was 'created by' to 'a film by'. Finally we realised that having a red filter on some of the ending clips did portray anger bit it didn't go well with the rest of the clips, so instead we added some angry music and it has a much better effect.

Group 5 Blog Update: 01.02.11

Blog Update: 31.01.11 (Screen Grab)

This Lesson we have research what type of transitions thrillers use, so we are able to incorporate it into our own work. We also used live type to create title sequences which we are going to put into our opening sequence.
I found out that most thriller films have blank transitions, and we would also have a choice weather to put the title sequence at the beginning of the opening sequence or in the middle.

Research on Transitions & Titles

In the 5 opening sequences that i researched all of them didn't use transitions and just used cut clips, but when they go to the man storyline Memento used a fade to white transition, the butterfly effect went to the title scene, gas light didn't have no transition at all and had the title scene at the beginning, Seven had a fade from black transition at the beginning but the rest didn't have transition then after the opening sequence the title comes and Gothika also had the title at the beginning and has no transitions.
Therefore out of the 5 opening sequences that i researched 3 had the title scene at the beginning, whereas the other two have it in the middle of the opening sequence.

Screen grab of Live Type: 25.01.11

Here is a screen grab of us creating a clip for our production name.

Group 5 Blog Update: 25.01.11

Asking for permission to use a song

Here is a screen grab of group 5 asking for permission to use a song from youtube.

Screen Grabs: 17.01.11 & 24.01.11

17.01.11

 24.01.11

Filming Update: 21.01.11 & Soundtrack Production

Due to not being able to film in Chiquitos and beccontree tandoori, we filmed in Castle green cafe. We decided to develop on some of the original shots we had on our storyboard and add some new shots to make more footage.


 On 20.01.11 Jamie created a creepy soundtrack to go with our opening sequence. He used just two pianos and a bowlglass effect. He recorded it on an iphone so as not professional quality, but it still works well.

Group 5 Blog Update: 24.01.2011

Group 5 Blog Update: 18.01.11

Update: 18.01.2011

From where we have time in lesson to film we decided to film the shot scene where Fredrick is attacked by someone, the only things we really need are:
-Camera
-Tripod
-Two male actor's

Preparation for 19.01.2011

(19.01.2011) Wednesday:

Our Group is meeting on wednesday at 01:00pm at Becontree to film the scene where Fredrick meets Jane and Damien at a restaurant. We will be filming inside and outside the indian restaurant on Becontree, then we will then move on the the street scene when fredrick gets attacked by a person. 

Props:

-Jean's and shirt
-Black Suit
-Two Male actors

-One Female actress
-Camera
-Tripod

Update: 15.01.2011

We were unable to film on saturday the 15.01.2011 from where are request to film in Chiquito's was sadly declined, but from where we had a back up place which was the Indian restaurant at Becontree we still have a place where we can film.

This is the email reply to Jamie letting us no that we are unable to film there:

In spite of us being unable to film the restaurant scene we were still able to film the scene where Jane in found in her bed dead.

Here is photo of where we shot this scene and the clothing that was worn:

Update: Filming After School 14.01.2011

Today we filmed shot 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 from our storyboard but we found out that some shot didn't work to well, so we played around and tried some other shot and angles.

Here are some photo's of us while we were filming, this documents where we were filming and how the camera was set up in some shots and it also shows the lighting we used.

Preparation for 15.01.2011

(15.01.2011) Saturday:

Our Group is meeting on saturday at 12:00 at Chiqutio's to film the scene where Fredrick meets Jane and Damien at a restaurant. We will then move on the the street scene when fredrick gets attacked by a person with a baseball bat. Finally we will do the scene where Jane is found dead in her bed, which will take place at Armani's house.

Props:
-Bed

-Pyjama's
-Jean's and shirt
-Black Suit
-Two Male actors

-One Female actress
-Camera
-Tripod
-Face paint / Fake blood

-Baseball bat

We would also need a digital camera to document our work, so that we can post the picture to our blogs and show what we were doing when we were filming, and also film us going through the shooting process.

Fredrick's Flashback Script (for voiceover)

Shot 1
"Grunts"


Shot 2
"help.."


Shot 3
"HELP!"


Shot 4 & 5
"Where...am...I?"


Shot 6
"Jane.."

Shot 7
"...died"

Shot 8
"Wasn't me.."

Shot 9
"*sniff* my head !!"

Shot 10
"Jane...(2 second pause) I loved you"

New Production Schedule

What?                                      When?                Where?                            Who?

-2 male actors                         -14.01.2011         -DR3 classroom               -Jamie

Scene

-Fredrick tied in the chair and blacked out man with him

-2 male & 1 female actors       -15.01.2011         -Castle Green cafe          -Daniel & Reece
                                                                         /Chiqutio & Street

Scene

-When Fredrick, Damion and Jane are having a drink in a cafe

-When Fredrick is walking down the street

-1 female actress                     -15.01.2011         -Bedroom                      -Armani

Scene

Jane dead in her bed

The reason for making a new production schedule is because we had to work around the place we are recording in, this is because we have to make sure the drama room is free and get authorisation to film in Chiqutio's. If we are unable to get authorisation to film in Chiqutio's we will go to the Indian on Becontree, if we are again not able to film there are last resort will be Castle Green Cafe.  

Preparation for 14.01.2011 After School

(14.01.2011) Friday After school


Props:
-Rope
-Chair
-Cake trolly
-Jean's and shirt
-Black Suit
-Two Male actors
-Camera
-Tripod
-Face paint / Fake blood
-Fabric (to tie around mouth)
-Baseball bat

Lighting:
-Spot light
-Over head lighting

We would also need a digital camera to document our work, so that we can post the picture to our blogs and show what we were doing when we were filming. 

Production Schedule

Locations

-DR3 classroom at Jo Richardson Community School

-The Cafe at Castle Green / (Chiqutio)

-A Bedroom

-Street

Props

-Chairs

-Rope

-Scarf / Handkerchief

-Fake Blood

-Table 

Costume

-Black Suit, white shirt, black tie and black shoes

-Blue jeans, white shirt and trainers

- Pyjamas

-Girl Blazer, white shirt, skirt and black shoes

Actors

-Three male actors 

-One Female actress

Equipment

-Camera

-Spotlight

-Tripod

-Cake trolley

What?                                      When?                Where?                            Who?

-2 male actors(One police)      -10.01.2011         -In School                      -Reece

Scene

-Fredrick is talking to the police man (flash back)

-2 male & 1 female actors       -11.01.2011         -Castle Green cafe          -Daniel
                                                                             /Chiqutio & Street

Scene

-When Fredrick, Damion and Jane are having a drink in a cafe

-When Fredrick is walking down the street

-2 male actors                         -14.01.2011         -DR3 classroom               -Jamie

Scene

-Fredrick tied in the chair and blacked out man with him

-1 female actress                     -15.01.2011         -Bedroom                         -Armani

Scene

Jane dead in her bed

On Monday during school we purpose that we will be recording the scene when Fredrick is talking to a police man, then after that we will be recording clips from parts of the story board to see how it works out and if the timing is right.

Storyboard

Part 1 of Group 5's storyboard

Part 2 of Group 5's storyboard

Part 3 of Group 5's storyboard